Keeping the Light

For more than a century, Sandy Hook Lighthouse keepers lived in isolation at the end of this windswept peninsula. In the 1890s, the U.S. Army began building massive concrete gun batteries here to defend the entrance to New York harbor, and Fort Hancock was established to man the guns. The current two-family keeper’s quarters was built in 1883 and is the fifth house to stand near this site. Every day before sunset, the keeper and his assistant climbed the spiral stairs to the lens house to light the lamps, while trimming lamp wicks, cleaning soot from the lens, and carrying oil up the tower formed part of their daily work.

New Jersey · United States